TV News: I noticed that Netflix is trying to say they “cancelled” that animated Scott Pilgrim show from a year ago, but the truth is when that show premiered, and the creators were doing press, they were asked about wanting to do more Scott Pilgrim seasons, and their answer was a hard No back then. So, Netflix didn’t really drop a surprising axe here. If anything, taking a year to confirm this means they probably actually DID try to make another season, but everyone said No.
TV Shows Watched: Cobra Kai: S6E7 (Netflix) with audio description, Interior Chinatown: S1E1 (Hulu) with audio description, St. Dennis Medical: S1E3 (Peacock) with audio description, Say Nothing: S1E4 (Hulu) with audio description, and The Fairly odd parents: A New Wish: S1E1 (Netflix) with audio description. I must have watched the John Mulaney episode of SNL a little too early, because it did not yet have audio description, but I did also watch SNL. I know they are working to pass through that live audio description, so this is just a note.
Podcasts: None
YouTube: None
Movies Watched: None
I was trying to wrap my head around what this new Fairly odd parents show was even trying to do… as a show. I don’t have anything constructive right now to say about the audio description except for the fact that the narrator didn’t feel quite as right as some other voices have been for shows aimed at kids. This show is TV-Y7. While the original incarnation would be in the lower tier of Nicktoons for me, I still have seen the show before, at least a handful of episodes.
The big new addition is Interior Chinatown, which the worst thing I could say is that the first episode is too long. I will add that the show does have a unique premise that actually feels totally fresh. You could say that from just the fact that the show has Asian leads, but the cleverness is in this weird meta version of reality. It is like watching a character realize they are in a video game. Here, the premise seems to be that our main hero (jimmy O. yang) is essentially a TV version of an NPC. He’s background for a law and order type show, but he also has this whole life, hopes and dreams, and backstory to explore. He seems to be trapped in a show similar to SVU, but he doesn’t know he’s in a TV show. Until… unless… maybe he does? It is a winning premise at least, it just needs to land the delivery. It’s not quite like The Truman Show, or Pleasantville, but a little closer to Free Guy.
The audio description was OK. The cast is obviously predominantly Asian, as the show takes place in Chinatown, but everyone is still given ethnically neutral descriptions. So, even when a non-Asian character walks in, it’s like they want you to pick up from their hairstyle? It’s so weird, because the show is clearly heavy in underserved representation.
i try to talk to as many other blind and low vision viewers of audio description in films and television, and one time a black female mentioned to me why this stuff matters so much, as an example, was that she had watched a handful of projects that featured Idris Elba, before one ever mentioned he was black. In her mind, she had “defaulted” him to white. And that’s what has a tendency to happen when we are asked to rely solely on essentially preconceived notions about what someone racially “sounds like”. So, whenever a team sets up description that they are trying to be diversity free, what they don’t realize is that a lot of times, people are thinking based off of what they hear and know. Does that character sound….? I have a feeling if we focused grouped some of these shows with nondescript tracks, that we’d find troubling answers when you ask the audience to guess. It may seem obvious that these characters are Asian, but I doubt everyone in the show is. Shows with black casts often are excellent about pointing out their heavy representation. Tyler Perry’s new Netflix show just opens with a notice that the cast is predominantly black. Not making a choice is just so weak, and I really believe focus grouping these things would result in troubling answers when asked to choose. It is one of the reasons I was so upset at the nomination of Percy Jackson for excellence in audio description, as an intentionally diverse cast full of representation for all kids, was reduced to a gray area where people pick and choose in their minds who people are as they rely on what they sound like, or have to do an inordinate amount of googling every cast member to fill in gaps the audio description could just as easily provide answers for.
the show is very promising, but I do want more from this audio description.
